Sin is undoubtedly a serious problem that we as believers in Christ have to confront on an ongoing basis in order to maintain our relationship and our walk with the Lord. The truth is that nobody can have a genuine relationship with God while living a sinful life. Our relationship and fellowship with God is rested wholly on our reverence for Him by keeping His Word. Therefore, we can’t really have something that’s based on honoring God’s Word while living in such a way that dishonors that very same thing that must be honored.
By the way, living in sin is tantamount to rejecting God along with His Word. Moreover, sin can ultimately become a major obstacle that can potentially block spiritual growth and ruin our relationship with God in the event that it’s not dealt with swiftly. Consequently, God in all His love for us as His children wants us to develop the ability by the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to deal with sin wisely in order to avoid all the implications that come along with it.
But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death (James 1:14-15).
Yielding to sin should not be conceived merely in the context of satisfying an urge that we’re experiencing. That’s how we allow the enemy to fool us in a big way by imprinting into our minds that very deceptive kind of mentality. His foremost goal is to make sure that we simply view sin from just a humanistic perspective. Because he just doesn’t want us to fully understand all the implications that come along with sin.
When we’re tempted, we feel like succumbing to it for the sake of quenching that intense desire that we’re struggling with. Our normal reaction is to act accordingly with the hope to get the situation under control. Therefore, the entire focus is then placed completely on ourselves in the context of doing something that can somehow relieve that intense pressure being exerted on us.
With that kind of mindset, we don’t have time to think that much about how God will react when we deliberately choose to give in to things that He already hates and doesn’t want us to participate in. The only thing that we can think of as a result of our depraved mind is that we’ll have plenty of time to do better, or we’ll have plenty of time to get things right with God before it’s too late.
In many cases, we may falsely say to ourselves that we’ll make sure that next time we deal with that temptation wisely without even taking into consideration that our current yielding will eventually weaken us much further for the next one that will come our way. In most cases, as human we have a tendency to yield to temptation instead of relying upon God to sustain us all throughout the process.
God Has Provided us a Way to Escape Temptation.
God has made us such a wonderful promise in (1 Corinthians 10:13) that He’ll never allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to deal with it. That verse goes on by saying that even when we’re tempted, He’ll empower us to endure it until we finally escape it unharmed. But, that can only take place if we’re willing to submit our free will to God by acknowledging our inabilities, our human weaknesses, and our shortcomings. Me must demonstrate God a sincere willingness that we don’t want to act upon what we’re tempted about because we just don’t want to indulge ourselves in anything that will displease Him.
The problem is that when allow ourselves to get too far into the temptation process; we feel that we’ve already been defiled in God’s sight; therefore, there’s no need to call upon God to help us get out of it. Or it could be that we just want to act upon what we’re tempted about; we pretend that we forget everything the Word of God says against what we want to do along with sermons we’d heard.
We forget every promise that we’d made to God to live for Him alone. Moreover, we also express a complete disregard toward our constant responsibilities to God. The truth may come up into our minds in order to steer us away from what we’re enticed toward, but we simply let the evil tendency to indulge in to override it.
Sin Must be Seen Just as it is.
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened (Psalm 66:18).
Oftentimes, when we’re tempted our minds are so clogged up with the tendency of acting upon what we’re tempted about, we end up missing the bigger picture of the true nature of sin. That evil tendency then builds up a curiosity and an excitement for us to rush in without even thinking about the consequences that can come along with the bad choices that we’re about to make. As a result, we happen to think that certain things can’t happen to us just as if we’re above consequences of sin.
There’s no doubt about it, that evil tendency can potentially become so powerful and impulsive to the extent that it literally forces people to consider giving themselves or giving themselves totally into things that were completely unacceptable and detestable to them a while ago. The thing is that sin must always be seen just as it is, and that’s very critical to effectively deal with it. It should be seen as pure evil, as a contemptuous act to God, an act that insults or shows contempt or lack of reverence for God and His Word, and an act that causes us to trample God’s holy Word under our feet.
A bold act that causes us to treat Christ’s terrible sacrifice for us on the cross with disdain, an act that renders us to become very insensitive and unresponsive to our Lord and Savior. An irreverence act that causes us to become apathetic to God as well as Kingdom’s matters. An act that causes us to shut the door on the Holy Spirit by turning our back on Him, His leading, and so forth just for the sake of temporary pleasures.
Shockingly, sin is also an act that enables us to develop the characteristics of Satan. Sin causes us to become enemy of God just as Satan is. Some of these things mentioned here may not be expressed consciously, but if we truly examine ourselves and our attitudes when we’re deliberately sinning against God, that’s precisely what we convey to God with our sinful lifestyles. Consequently, that’s exactly how God conceives it.
It’s quite obvious that when are caught up into sin, we only think of it in the sense of pleasing ourselves. However, the truth is that we’re not only pleasing ourselves when we’re practicing sin. We’re pleasing the devil at the same time; therefore, it doesn’t matter whether we want to acknowledge it or not. Just as God wants to be glorified through us by how we live our lives, so is the devil. His main objective is to give us that twisted and deceptive feeling that we have to engage in anything that can bring us pleasure.
We have to yield to what can satisfy the flesh; in order words, anything contrary to scripture that can make us feel good about ourselves, along with what best suits us. If we don’t do this or that, we feel like we’re really missing out on something big while our bad choices will place us right under his dominion. Sin is an act that puts us into situation where we’re playing gamble with our own souls. Keep in mind, sin is also an act that glorifies and honors Satan. The best way to deal with sin is to be able to view it from God’s perspective.
Conclusion
In short, it’s very clear that nobody will ever be able to hate sin just as God does, but what we can learn from His full hatred toward sin is the fact that He doesn’t overlook people’s sins committed against Him. The key to develop God’s perspective when it comes down to sin is through a genuine intimate relationship with Him. The purpose of a relationship with God is to enable us to know Him intimately to the extent that we become very sensitive and responsive to Him, His will, His call and purpose for our lives, and matters of His kingdom.
From that point, we’ll think twice and thrice before indulging in any sinful activities that can disrupt that relationship. We must have the mind of Christ into us in order to give us a sound mindset, which is rested solely on pleasing God as well as bringing Him glory in everything we do.
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